Box for mail and the like



Oct. 30, 192 8. 1,689,204

5. R. HUNTER ET AL BOX FOR MAIL AND THE LIKE Filed July 16, 1924 v Patented Oct. 30, 1928.

1,859,204 F ECE'." f 5 SAMUEL n. HUNTER, or MISI-IAWAKA, AND JOHN w; ARNOLD, or sonrn Bani), I i

, IN IANA. w v

BOX r03 MAIL Application filed July 16;

The present invention, although applicable to other uses, is particularly intended foruse in apartment buildings or other places where mail is deposited by mail carriers in boxes that are accesible to the public or at-least to others than the person or persons for whom the mail is intended; and its object, specifically considered, is to produce a simple and novel construction and arrangement which shall contain a plurality of compartments of considerable depth, without concealing an objectionably large portion of the surface of. a wall to which it may be applied, and'which will make it possible for the mail carrier to open all of the compartments by the operation of a single doorwithout permitting the owner or user of one compartment to gain access to any other compartment. Z 1

Viewed in one of its aspects the present invention may be said to have for its objectto produce a simple and novel multiplecompartment box provided with a single door or closure common to all of the compartments and with individual doors for the several compartments. a r

A furtherobject of the present inventioninay-be said tobe the production of a simple andnovel multiple-compartment box so constructed and arranged that a single, comparatively small'door gives entrance simultaneously to all of the compartments when the door is opened, thereby making the height of thedoor independent of the height ofthe box and permitting the latter to be made. of. any height desired.

The various features of novelty whereby our invention is characterized will hereinafter be pointed out with particularity in the claims; but, for a full understanding'of our invention and of its objects and advantages, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein Figure 1 is a front elevation of a device arranged in accordance withthepresent invention, set into a wall, a fragment of the wall being shown; Fig. 2 is a section-taken approximately on line 2-2 Of Fig. 1'; Fig. 3 is a vertical section, on a larger scale, through the hinged joint between the main door and the box, showing a slightly modified construction; and Fig. 4 is afront view of-a fragment of the box, showing one ofthe hinges illustrated in Fig. 3.

Referring'to the drawing, 1 "represents a Ann ran LIKE.

1924. Serial at. 726,295.

casing made out of any suitable materials be varied by simply varying the width of the I casing and adding more partitions. It isdesirable that the. individual compartments, each of which, constitutes a mail-reoeiving receptacle, be made rather high so .as to be capable of receiving long pieces of mail. 1

'However, it is not desirable that too large a superficial area be exposed when. the device is set in a wall; not only for the sake of appearance, but also to avoid the necessity of man'u- 1 facturing an undulydarge, expensive front plate or;wall. 6 have therefore designed :the device so that the'door openings have only. a fraction of the height of the mail compartments' the door openings being prefer ably in the. lower portions of said comparte ments so that the mail will be exposed to view when the doors are opened. V

Forconvenience in placing mail in the several compartments of the box, there should be a single doorcommonto all of the compartments and, in order that each tenant or user may'haveacc'ess to his own 'mail' but not to that in other compartments, each compar'tment shouldhave an individual door. We have therefore provided the box with a door 3 extending across all of the compartments so as to be common thereto, and in this main door we have' 'arranged individual doors', one for each compartment. Since the main door has a vertical dimension much less than the height of the box, it may conveniently be i mounted in a front plate 5 taking the form of a rectangular frame surrounding the door and also having a vertical dimension much 7 less thanthe-height of the box. This front plate or frame extends across and forms the front Wall for the lower portion of the-box, while the front wall 6 for the upper portion ofthe box is set back some distance from the" v plane'of the wall 5. This arrangement permits the box to be set into a wall 7, of the thickness that is usually employed inhall's or i Mar,

V lobbies of apartmentbuildings, with a layer of plastering '7" extending down over the wall 6, but with its outer surface' substantiall yflush with the wall thatcontains the doors. When the box or receptacle isemoun tedit: the Wall, the onlyportions thereof that are exposed are the frame 5 andthe-doors;

and therefore onlythis frameand the doors used, the body of the casing and the partitions being made of any suitable serviceable materials. P

The main door is supported in its frame by suitable hinges which are preferably arranged betweenthe top of the door and the upper member of the door frame, as indicated at Sandi). The auxiliary or individual doors are preferably hung on hinges 10 whose axes are vertical. Themain door may be held closed by suitable lock 11 adapted to be" opened only by a key carried by the postman. Each auxiliary door is provided with its own lock as indicated at 12. I When mail is to be deposited in the box, the postman simply unlocks the main door, which then is swung up into-the position shown indotted lines in Fig.

2, either automatically or otherwise, "giving him access to all of the compartments. When a-tenant desires to withdraw mail,.vhe simply unlocks the door to his particular compartmeat, but does not-thereby gain access to any Other compartment. V i

Suitable spring means may be provided for Swinging the main door into its open posi tion, A simple way of applying such a spring isto employ a spring hinge such as illustrated at 13,,Figs. 3 and 4; lindicating the spring which is'placed under tension when-the door is closed and therefore,as soon as the door is unlocked, acts to swing it open. 'Where such spring-opening means are employed,the postman must push the door shut. against the resistance of the spring or springs, after having placed the mail in the box. If it is not desired e tocause the door to swing open automatically when it is unlocked there may be employed a suitablecatch or strut for holding the door open after it has been manually opened; so

that the postmanneed only trip the catch. or

support and permit the door to drop into its closedposition by gravity; Such an arrangement is shown in Fig. 2.. Referring to this figure, it will be seen that on the inner side of the main door is a curved bar '15 hinged at oneend, as indicated at 16, to the main door a! some distance below the upper ed e of the.

latter, Near the free end of the 1 air is a notch 17 that is adapted to engage with a pin 18 Iprojecting laterally from one of the side we 7 s or one of the partitions of the box when he (100 iSiSWung p n, and serve as a sup 'porting strut for holding the door" open.

When the d is t b c he postman simply pushes the lower end of the bar or strut upwardly far enough to bring the notch 17 clean of the pin 18, whereupon the door will-drop down by grav ty and thebar will move from the dotted line position in Fig. 2 into the full line positlon.

metallic area; and which will permit. the postman easily and conveniently to place mail in all of the compartments and the tenants or users each to withdraw his own mail, and will not permit the placing of circulars or other objects and things into the box by unauthor-' ized persons. y I v Vhile we have illustrated[and described with particularity only a single preferred: form ofour invention, with a slight modifica tion, we do not desire to'be limited to the spe cific details thus illustrated and described; but intend to cover all forms andarrangement thatcome Within the definition of our invention constituting the appended claims. a

We claim: g

'1. A device of the character described, comprising a casing divided into a series of vertical compartments arranged side by side, the upper portion of the casing being shallower from front to rear than the lower portion to permit-the upper portion to lie behind a wall with which the lower portion is flush, a main door on the front of said lower por tion common to all of the compartments, said main door being hinged to swing. about ahor izontal axis atiits upper edge, means tending constantly to open said main door, individual doors for said compartments in the afore-' to all of said compartments extending across thefront of said lower portion of the casing 1 lil and mounted so as to be capable of swinging outwardly about a horizontal axis, individual" doors for said compartments in the aforesaid door, and a separate lock for each door.

3. A device of the character described, comprising a casingdivided into a series of vertical compartments arranged side by side, the lower portion ofthe casingprojecting outwardly beyond the front of the upper portion, a plate at the front of the lower portion pro-' jecting upwardly beyond the lower end of the upper portion so as to permit it to lie flush with a wall concealing the shallower upper portion, a door common to all of saidcomthe aforesaid door, and a separate lock forpartments extending across the front of said lower portion of the casing and mounted so as to be capable of swinging outwardly about a horizontal axis, adjacent to its upper edge, individual doors for said compartments in each door.

4. A device of the character described, com prising a casing divided into a series of Vertical compartments arranged side by side,

the lower portion of the casing projecting outwardly beyond the upper portion so as to permit it to lie flush with a wall concealing the shallower upper portion, a door common to all of said compartments extending across the front of said lower portion ofthe casing and mounted so as to be capable of swinging outwardly about a horizontal axis, adjacent to its upper edge, individual doors for said compartments in the aforesaid door, and a 5. A mail receptacleeonsisting of a casing situated in a wall opening and having a back wall,top,bottom and side walls extending outwardly perpendicularly to said back wall,c-ertain of said perpendicularly extending Walls being shorter than the other perpendicular walls so that a portion of the casing will be flush with theouter edge of the wall supporting the same and the remaining portion will be'conoealed beneath said wall, said casing being divided into compartments, a master f door for all the compartments and individual doors in said master door giving access-to each compartment. o

In testimony whereof, we sign tlns spec1fi cation.

' JOHN W. ARNOLD.

SAMUELR. HUNTER. 

